How Global can Mămăligă be? Methodological and Gastronomical Reflections

Talk by Alex Drace-Francis (University of Amsterdam) in the SNAKLAB series, organized by the seeFField project in cooperation with IOS Regensburg.

The talk will focus on methods of analysis and interpretation of mămăligă, a well-known cornmeal porridge. On the one hand, mămăligă can be approached as a symbol of Romanian national identity: it has often been discussed in this way, as have other food products from the Balkans and southeastern Europe (e.g. burek, yoghurt, sarmale), using sources like cookery books, folklore and fieldwork. On the other, mămăligă is the product of wider global processes and can enable comparison with other cuisines and economies on a global scale.